Credit card fraud has amounted to 300 million pounds so far this year in the UK

The UK ITV's Tonight programme, Card Criminals Uncovered, conducted an investigation into credit card fraud in the UK in its programme which aired on 27 October 2008. Credit card fraud is estimated to have cost UK banks and consumers 300 million pounds so far this year.

The research team set up a false website, Gotcha Gadgets, selling hi-tech goods to track orders and credit card activity. The programme emphasized the truly international reach of credit card fraud. In one case, the goods were ordered in Ghana using a credit card registered in Venezuela, with goods being delivered to a UK address. Another woman had been duped by a man purportedly living in America whom she had met over a dating website into accepting goods bought using a stolen credit card, supposedly for an orphanage in Africa. The UK currently has an Electronic Crime Police Unit, but it operates only based out of London. The UK Government is taking new steps to address the issue of credit card fraud.

The poor technical skills of many young hackers means they are very likely to get caught and arrested, they say.

Youth workers added that any teenager getting a criminal record would be putting their future at risk.

Slippery slope

"I see kids of 11 and 12 sharing credit card details and asking for hacks," said Chris Boyd, director of malware research at FaceTime Security.

Many teenagers got into low level crime by looking for exploits and cracks for their favourite computer games.

Communities and forums spring up where people start to swap malicious programs, knowledge and sometimes stolen data. Some also look for exploits and virus code that can be run against the social networking sites popular with many young people. Some then try to peddle or use the details or accounts they net in this way."

The project builds a database within MCIT for ICT indicators which will help in measuring and analyzing the information society in Egypt, according to international standards and analysis. It aims to build capacity in the area of ICT indicators, monitor ICT usage in Egypt within different sectors and across different geographic regions. Providing decision-makers with early, accurate ICT indicators will help them in setting policies and strategies related to the ICT sector.

How worried should we be about net security scares, asks Bill Thompson.

Anyone concerned about the security of their computers and the data held on them might sleep a little uneasily tonight.

Over the past few weeks we've heard reports of serious vulnerabilities in wireless networking and chip and pin readers, and seen how web browsers could fall victim to "clickjacking" and trick us into inadvertently visiting fake websites.

The longstanding fear that malicious software might start infecting our mobile phones was given a boost when the Information Security Center at US university Georgia Tech outlined how phone software could be hijacked to create "botnets" and allow handsets to be remotely controlled.

And now a group of researchers at the Security and Cryptography Laboratory at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland have shown that you can read what is typed on a keyboard from 20m away.

It takes some sophisticated equipment to do it, but with the right antennae and a bit of luck it seems you can detect the radio emissions coming from the wires that connect keyboards to computers and tell just what someone is typing.

Three out of four children have seen images on the internet that disturbed them, an NSPCC poll suggests.

The charity is renewing its call for computer manufacturers and retailers to install security to stop children finding violent or sexual content. The NSPCC, which polled visitors to its children's website There4me.com, said it was "alarmed" by the accessibility of potentially disturbing material. Some 377 of 497 votes cast claimed to have been disturbed by internet images.

One child posted a comment on a There4me message board saying: "I've seen violent images I didn't search for. I was freaked out." Another said his eight-year-old sister's search for "pictures of animals" generated pornography adverts. The NSPCC wants social networking and video hosting sites to remove offensive material within hours of finding it.

Policy adviser Zoe Hilton said the NSPCC was "alarmed" by how easy it was for children to access "disturbing internet material". She said: "Children are just a few clicks away from innocently stumbling across upsetting or even dangerous pictures and films such as adult sex scenes, violent dog fights, people self-harming and children being assaulted."

The Future Role of ICT in Meeting Operational Challenges in Energy Utilities

Shifting By Degrees To A Modern World

A Datamonitor whitepaper prepared for Alcatel Lucent was published in September 2008.

Energy utilities are operating in an environment where significant market and operational challenges exist. The deployment and implementation of appropriate Information Communication Technology (ICT) solutions plays an intrinsic role in meeting these challenges.

The Global Standards Symposium that ended in Johannesburg, South Africa has called for measures to limit the emission of greenhouse gases using information communications technology.

African governments were urged to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and their carbon footprints while ensuring that the expansion of the global communications network is done in an environmentally friendly manner.

ITU Focus Group on Climate Change was also asked to research into the impacts of Information Communications Technology - ICTs on the reduction of greenhouse gas - GHG emissions.

Malcolm Johnson, ITU-T Director, noted that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had underscored the need for ITU to play a significant role in addressing climate change terming it the moral challenge of our times. "Industry is faced with probably its biggest ever challenge but also its biggest ever opportunity in terms of corporate social responsibility. There is the challenge for the ICT industry to limit its own emissions, but also the opportunity to maximize its potential to help other sectors reduce their emissions. This could make for a tremendously good news story for the ICT industry," said Johnson.

Information and communication technology firms are at the forefront of reducing our carbon footprint, and they are set to reap the rewards.

As businesses scramble to reduce their energy consumption internally and across supply chains, the information and communication technology sector stands to gain significantly. Holding the keys to smart information management, green ICT systems are being heralded by governments and NGOs as the climate-change solution.

Rob Bernard, chief environmental strategist to software giant Microsoft, says, “Software can deliver an alternative to fossil fuels.” In other words, for ICT companies the nascent green market looks like a very attractive place to invest.

Just recently, European Union countries agreed to maintain their targets and schedule to tackle climate change. But once again, Europe’s leadership in tackling climate change may be weakened by the credit crisis as Italy, Poland, Latvia and others at the EU meeting last week threatened to veto Europe’s carbon plan unless they were softened, New York Times reports.

Commission welcomes European Parliament’s strong support for a new Safer Internet Programme

The European Parliament cast an overwhelmingly positive vote today on the report drafted by MEP Roberta Angelilli which supports the launch of a new EU Safer Internet programme. The 5-year programme (2009–13), proposed by the European Commission last February, will have a budget of € 55 million to combat illegal online content but also to tackle illegal and harmful conduct such as grooming and cyberbullying.

“Today’s children and teenagers face new challenges when they use Web 2.0 services. The EU will coordinate actions to empower children and protect them”, said Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media in response to the positive outcome of the vote in Parliament. “I am particularly glad that the Parliament addressed the Commission’s proposal so promptly and strongly endorsed our proposals to make the Internet safer for children. I am convinced that the new Safer Internet programme will play an important role in our understanding of the challenges regarding online risks for young people and children, and will provide concrete help to many young internet users and their parents.“

Today's vote during the European Parliament's plenary session in Strasbourg followed a debate on the Commission’s proposal, which was applauded by all political groups. Some MEPs even considered the programme as “one of the best things Europe could do”. The new Programme is now expected to be approved by the Council before the end of 2008.

United Nations-backed “Caring for Climate” gathering today is drawing representatives from more than 150 corporations, civil society organizations and governments from around the world to discuss business solutions to the problem of global warming and speed up action on climate change. The UN Global Compact, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) launched the “Caring for Climate” scheme last year, with chief executive officers (CEOs) of 150 companies – including 30 from the Fortune Global 500 – signing on.

Opening the three-day session, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Eamon Ryan said it was "a great honour for Ireland" to host the meeting. "Climate change is a global problem and will only be solved by countries working together," he added.

"We need to develop the technology to help us in this task", the Minister said. "Developing countries are bearing the brunt of climate change; industrialised countries should work with them for a common solution to a problem that affects all of us." "The negotiations on technology have come to the fore of the international negotiations, and I hope that the meetings in Dublin this week help move us towards an equitable and effective global agreement on climate change."

The Japanese government said Tuesday that it would introduce a voluntary carbon market based on companies' pledged emissions cuts and hoped that thousands of firms would sign up to what could become a forerunner of a mandatory cap-and-trade project. The project, once it is up and running next year, is expected to be the broadest emissions market in the country.

But some say it still falls short of what Japan needs to make deep emission cuts and could backfire. Japan has been reluctant to impose mandatory limits on emissions. Despite being one of the world's most energy-efficient countries, Japan, like all wealthy nations, has come under increasing pressure from developing countries to pledge deeper cuts in emissions as part of a global effort to tackle climate change.

In a wide-ranging speech this afternoon at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Ban said it was crucial to ratify an international treaty on greenhouse-gas emissions before the Kyoto Accord expires in 2012.

Climate change "is no longer theory, it has become a fact," he told an audience of several hundred. "We cannot afford to delay any action."

The first-ever Global Standards Symposium concluded yesterday in Johannesburg, South Africa, with broad agreement on the need to take aggressive action to streamline standards work and end the duplication of efforts within the sector. The one-day symposium brought together government ministers, diplomats, senior executives from the private sector and lead officials from other standards bodies.

Opening the Symposium, ITU standards chief Malcolm Johnson noted that without global standards the ICT world would be a very different place. "Imagine a world with no Internet or no telephone calling from one side of the world to the other. Literally thousands of standards pin together this framework of technologies that keeps the world's businesses and consumers connected," Johnson said, adding that clarity and efficiency must be brought to bear as the standardization scenario gets more complex by the day.

"We must ensure we all pull together and avoid duplication of effort and waste our increasingly limited resources. Even large organizations are having difficulty resourcing this effort, so how can small organizations, especially from developing countries, hope to play a role?"

Addressing Global Challenges

Participants at the Global Standards Symposium also addressed ICTs and climate change, increasing developing country participation in the standardization process, and accessibility to ICTs for persons with disabilities. Delegates were called on to set an example by committing to specific programs to limit their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduce their carbon footprint and help ensure that the expansion of the global communications network is done in an environmentally friendly manner.

The importance of the work of the ITU Focus Group on Climate Change was recognized; in particular the need for a standardized approach to measuring the impact of ICTs on the reduction of GHG emissions. Malcolm Johnson noted that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had underlined ITU's role in addressing climate change.

"From a standardization perspective, ITU has already produced a checklist for standards authors to ensure climate change is taken into account in the development of our standards," Johnson said. "Industry is faced with probably it's biggest ever challenge but also its biggest every opportunity in terms of corporate social responsibility. There is the challenge for the ICT industry to limit its own emissions, but also the opportunity to maximize its potential to help other sectors reduce their emissions. This could make for a tremendously good news story for the ICT industry."

Children Artists to Join Forces with UN to Combat Climate Change in New York on 23 October 2008

Young artists from around the world are lending their support to global efforts to combat climate change through Paint for the Planet , an exhibit and auction of children’s art to be held in New York starting on 23 October 2008. The event will spur the ‘UNite to Combat Climate Change’ campaign to support the call for a definitive agreement at the climate change talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 2009.

Extreme weather events such as the hot summer of 2003, which caused an extra 35,000 deaths across southern Europe from heat stress and poor air quality, will happen more frequently.

The report says that the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - a study of global warming by 4,000 scientists from more than 150 countries which alerted the world to the possible consequences of global warming - is now out of date. WWF's report, Climate Change: Faster, stronger, sooner, has updated all the scientific data and concluded that global warming is accelerating far beyond the IPCC's forecasts.

At the opening of the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly 2008 (WTSA-08) on 21 October, ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun I. Touré recalled the importance of standards for international communications and global trade: "Globalisation requires global standards, and a global standards body like ITU clearly has an increasing role to play. Global standards avoid costly market battles over preferred technologies, and for companies from emerging markets, they create a level playing field which provides access to new markets" Dr Touré said.

WTSA is a quadrennial event where ITU members decide on the direction of ITU’s standardization work for the next four years.

Insights into growth in mobile transmission capacity from CMO of Harris Stratex

BNAmericas summarizes insights from an interview with Shaun McFall, Harris Stratex Networks' Chief Marketing Officer. According to McFall, IP mobile backhaul is growing 20% worldwide annually in the most developed markets, due to the rising penetration of smartphones and growing use of data. Data transport over mobile networks grew four times in 2007 and is projected to grow another four times this year: "Growth in demand for capacity runs all the way from the core network to the base station. When they get to radio access networks, they're going to start running into difficulties because these networks were not designed for that capacity," McFall said. "The modernization of those networks is what we see as our opportunity; to migrate it to Ethernet or allow [gradual migration] so they can still keep the legacy TDM network on the air for 5-10 yrs."

"Future mobile networks some years from now will probably eventually be all Ethernet and between now and then they will be increasingly a mix of Ethernet and TDM. The latest generation of microwave products are designed to transport both," he added.

Telecom Web is reporting that fiber-optic access specialist FibroLAN has unveiled a new 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) Local Area Network (LAN) Network Termination Unit (NTU) extender/demarcation device that it claims is an industry first. The new offering, designated the GA10, is aimed at such very large bandwidth users as Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (ILECs) or very large enterprise users. FibroLAN, based in Yoqneam, Israel, but with U.S. headquarters in Rochelle Park, N.J., says its new product fills three clear market niches: - As an NTU, the GA10 terminates a 10 GbE service to very large users, whilst it can handle lower rates as well.- For wholesale operations, the GA10 can be used as a clear demarcation device between primary carriers and their partners.- The GA10 can be used to extend transmission distances and/or to change wavelengths - for example, several GA10s can be cascaded to extend transmission well-beyond the current 80 kilometer limit for 10 GbE without reverting to more expensive technologies.

In addition, when combined with its recently introduced extended wavelength division multiplexer (WDM) line, up to ten 10 GbE services can be transmitted concurrently over a fiber pair. Such technology offers the business segment multiple new applications, but also offers exciting new prospects for helping bridge the digital divide.

Concerted international action is crucial in addressing development challenges, whose scope has intensified in recent months due to climate change, soaring food and energy prices and the global financial turmoil, Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro said on 14 October 2008.

World Summit of Regions to be held in Saint Malo, France (29-30 October 2008)

While France has made energy and climate one of the priorities of its Presidency of the European Union and the UN is preparing a new global climate conference to take place in December in Poznañ, the Regional Council of Brittany and the international nrg4SD network will bring together, in Saint-Malo, 450 representatives of Regions, States, the European Union, NGOs, civil society and several UN agencies. The United Nations has expressed specific interest in this proactive and innovative regional-scale approach for the first time.

World Standards Day is celebrated each year on October 14 to pay tribute to the efforts of thousands of experts worldwide who collaborate within the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), International Organization for Standardization (ISO) International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to develop voluntary international standards that facilitate trade, spread knowledge and disseminate technological advances.

What living in a Hyperconnected world means - juggling devices & applications

Maravedis is reporting that, according to a recent survey by Nortel (based on a survey of 2,400 people), there is a growing trend towards hyperconnectivity: 16% of Internet users live a “hyperconnected” life, meaning they regularly use more than 7 devices and more than 9 applications; 36% are “increasingly connected,” meaning they use 4 devices and 9 applications; 20% are passive online users, and 28% are not very connected. Today’s users want networks that support voice services, while entertainment and media applications are also increasingly popular.

Vodacom South Africa, the wireless carrier owned 50/50 by Telkom SA and the Vodafone Group, has given Alcatel-Lucent a nearly $30 million contract to design, build and deploy an upgrade of its existing 3G network. Vodacom is a Pan-African carrier providing GSM service to more than 34 million customers in South Africa, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho and Mozambique. Vodacom South Africa launched its 3G network in December 2004, its 3G HSDPA network in March 2006 and its 3G HSDPA 3.6 with HSUPA network this past February. Vodacom's South African GSM and 3G networks cover more than 98 percent of the population.

On commercial launch, Vodacom says the network modernization project “will boost the capacity and coverage of Vodacom’s network and will enable the carrier to offer its customers a wide range of advanced next-generation mobile broadband services in future.” The enhanced 3G wireless network, which will be based on Alcatel-Lucent UMTS and HSDPA/HSUPA technologies, will improve Vodacom’s network voice-quality and data-transmission speeds while further strengthening indoor coverage in urban areas.

European leaders timetabled to sign the EU's climate and energy package today

European leaders are timetabled to sign the EU's climate and energy package at the EU Summit today, Wednesday 15 October 2008. Under the terms of the plan approved by Parliament last week, faster pricing of emissions allowances could be adopted to encourage cleaner, greener industry - power stations will have to buy their pollution allowances from 2013 (instead of getting any for free) and heavy industry permits will be phased out from 2013. Offsets were cut significantly, and bold new longer-term targets of 50% emissions reductions by 2035 and 60-80% by 2050 were set. For the first time, an emissions ceiling was set to stop dirty coal-fired power and significant funds were allocated to help developing countries go green, as well as research into carbon capture.

WiMAX has now seen the light of day in 305 deployments across 118 countries, according to the WiMAX Forum’s count in June 2008. In an example of technological leapfrogging, emerging markets, short on broadband offerings, accounted for more than 60% of subscribers on WiMAX networks globally in 2007.

Pyramid Research has just published a report analysing the deployment of commercial WiMAX networks and operators' market strategies in emerging economies. The report examines the competitive dynamics, end-user demand patterns and market potential of WiMAX, from adoption rates to spectrum licensing trends.

US regulators have struck a body blow at two men accused of masterminding the world's largest spam enterprise by obtaining a court order that shuts down some half-dozen companies they operated and freezing assets earned in the operation.

Lance Atkinson, a New Zealand citizen living in Australia, and Jody Smith, a businessman from McKinney, Texas, stand accused of overseeing an operation that raked in millions of dollars sending billions of spam messages. According to a complaint filed by the Federal Trade Commission, the men recruited spammers from around the world to send unsolicited junk mail related to male-enhancement pills, prescription drugs, and other items.

Spam opponents cheered the FTC's action.

"They are probably the most prolific spammers at the moment," Richard Cox, CIO of Spamhaus.org said of Atkinson and Smith. "This is probably the first time that an action by law enforcement will affect the level of spam in people's inboxes."

Attempts to contact Atkinson and Smith for comment were not successful.

Using an affiliate program called "Affking," they were at one point believed to be responsible for one-third of the world's spam, according to the FTC. The men took great pains to distance themselves from the operation, creating a handful of shell companies located throughout the world to launder the large sums of money they brought in and to purchase domain names and credit card services.

According to the FTC's complaint, Atkinson has been involved in the spam trade for years and is the sole director and shareholder of Inet Ventures Pty Ltd of Australia. Even after the FTC obtained a $2.2m judgment against Atkinson in 2005, he continued to recruit spammers to promote his various websites, FTC attorneys said in court documents.

To bolster their claim, the attorneys included a December 2007 conversation between Atkinson and his brother Shane Atkinson shortly after he was contacted by the BBC and asked about Gencash, a spam operation allegedly maintained by the brothers.

Telecom Web is reporting that the NGN Forum and the IMS Forum, the two major trade groups promoting the convergence of telecommunication voice and data services, have merged. Both have been working to promote the integration of wired and wireless technologies, with the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) viewed as focusing on consumer markets and the NGN Forum focusing on enterprise-oriented services, using the term Unified Communications (UC) rather than IMS. Telecom Web reports that in recent months, the two had already begun cooperating in endeavors including plugfests. By combining IMS with SIP and UC, and using Service Delivery Platforms (SDP), the united organization is expected to bring together developers, service providers, integrators and solution vendors.

ITU has carried out notable work in developing the detailed standards for the deployment of NGN. ITU has launched the NGN Global Standards Initiative (NGN-GSI) to give service providers the means to offer the wide range of services expected in NGN and to harmonize different approaches to NGN architecture worldwide. ITU's Study Group 13 (SG13) has developed a standard (ITU-T Recommendation) for interworking between the two dominant technologies in NGN, Ethernet and MPLS (multiprotocol label switching). SG 13 has also done significant work in the field of Virtual Private Networks (VPN) on standards that will allow VPNs to work over all kinds of networks - optical, MPLS, IP etc.

The credit crisis should be seen as an opportunity to rebuild the world financial system in a way that underpins “green” growth, Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference last Friday.

“Governments now have an opportunity to create and enforce policy which stimulates private competition to fund clean industry,” Mr. de Boer said, as he briefed on the upcoming Poznan Conference and other negotiations towards a new post-Kyoto Protocol climate change agreement that must be finalized by December 2009, in Copenhagen, Denmark. [The Protocol’s first commitment period ends on 31 December 2012, and international talks began late last year on a subsequent deal on specific outlooks in greenhouse gas emissions].

Global energy demand would grow by 55 per cent by 2030, he said, and in the period leading up to that date, worldwide energy supply infrastructure required a total investment of $22 trillion, with about half of that needed in developing countries. If those investments were not directed towards green investment, there would be a marked increase in greenhouse gas emissions, rather than the necessary decrease, he stressed.

Environment ministers from more than 30 countries are holding talks in the Polish capital this week to prepare for a major U.N. climate conference. The two days of informal meetings in Warsaw that start Monday mark the first time top-ranking officials from the key players in the climate change debate — including the United States, the European Union, India and China — have gathered since hard-nosed international talks last December in Bali, Indonesia.

Poland is preparing to host the U.N. climate summit in December with delegates from more than 190 countries in the western Polish city of Poznan. That conference aims to work out the details of a climate change accord to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

UNITED NATIONS - Instead of sidelining the fight against climate change, the global credit crisis could hasten countries' efforts to create "green growth" industries by revamping the financial system behind them, the UN climate chief said on Friday.

Hundreds of card swipers used by retail stores across Europe are believed to have been tampered by organized crime syndicates in China and Pakistan, according to US National Counterintelligence Executive Joel Brenner.

Brenner told The Daily Telegraph that criminals have doctored chip and PIN machines either during manufacturing in China or shortly after leaving the production line in order to send shopper credit card account details overseas. The devices were then expertly resealed and exported to Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Belgium.

"Previously only a nation state's intelligence service would have been capable of pulling off this type of operation," Brenner told the publication. "It's scary."

Hundreds of devices have been copying credit and debit card details over the past nine months and sending the data by way of mobile phone networks to tech-savvy criminals in Lahore, Pakistan, The Telegraph reports.

Scammers are exploiting meltdown in the banking sector in an attempt to trick users into handing over sensitive financial information.

Phishing emails commonly pose as security checks from a prospective mark's bank. The latest generation of the scam imitates communiques about bank mergers.

US consumer watchdog the Federal Trade Commission warned customers on Thursday not to take the bait. The FTC's alert - Bank Failures, Mergers and Takeovers: A "Phish-erman’s Special" - can be found here.

Although phishing scams have been around for at least five years - if not more - there are still plenty of suckers around to keep the scam profitable, even without considering the extra confusion added by the current banking crisis.

Transformation in the way people and businesses use technology could reduce annual man-made global emissions by 15 per cent by 2020 and deliver energy efficiency savings to global businesses of over EUR 500 billion [GBP 400 billion / USD 800 billion], according to a new report published by independent non-profit The Climate Group and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI).

UK consultancy Point Topic is reporting that China and the US are currently neck and neck in terms of their absolute numbers of broadband subscribers, but that, at current growth rates, China is set to forge ahead and overtake the US to become the world's largest broadband market. Point Topic CEO, Oliver Johnson, calls it "a major milestone for China", noting that “launching people into space is spectacular, but having the biggest broadband market down here on earth means a lot more for building a modern, hi-tech economy.”

When broadband first surged ahead in China, some observers predicted that it would overtake the USA in 2006. But then, broadband growth in China levelled off, just as it speeded up in the USA. For 18 months, the two countries ran in parallel, with similar additions in each quarter. Then, trends diverged sharply in 2008. In the USA, new broadband additions fell from 3.4 million in Q4 of 2007 to barely 1.1 million in Q2 of 2008, while in China, new broadband lines suddenly rose from 3.5 million to 5.0 million over the same period. By the end of June, China was home to 76.0 million broadband connections, only 900,000 fewer than the US. This gap was smaller than the total number that China added in July alone, at some 1.14 million according to Chinese official figures.

“It’s not so surprising that the US has been overtaken in absolute numbers – after all, China has more than three times as many homes and people”, Johnson points out. “But the US has also fallen behind the leading European and Asian countries in percentage take-up of broadband".

Underscoring the severity of a new class of vulnerability known as clickjacking, a blogger has created a proof-of-concept game that uses a PC's video cam and microphone to secretly spy on the player.

The demo, which is available here, appears to be a simple game that tests how quickly a user can click on a series of moving targets. Behind the scenes, it combines a generic clickjacking attack with weaknesses in Adobe's Flash technology to record the player using the PC's video camera and microphone.

The proof of concept is a powerful demonstration of the spooky implications behind clickjacking. The vulnerability allows malicious webmasters to control the links visitors click on. Once lured to a booby-trapped page, a user may think he's clicking on a link that leads to Google - when in fact it takes him to a money transfer page, a banner ad that's part of a click-fraud scheme, or any other destination the attacker chooses.

It plagues every major browser, Adobe Flash, and many other browsing technologies, according to Jeremiah Grossman and Robert "RSnake" Hansen, the researchers who first sounded the clickjacking alarm. The pair was scheduled to detail the threat two weeks ago at at OWASP's AppSec 2008 Conference in New York, but canceled the talk at the request of Adobe.

October 6, 2008 (IDG News Service) Shell Oil Co. is warning its employees that an IT contractor used the personal data of four Shell workers as part of an unemployment insurance claims scam in Texas.

Shell Oil, the U.S. subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, began notifying employees of the data breach on Friday, via a written notice that was posted on the Houston-based company's Web site.

Shell spokeswoman Robin Lebovitz said company officials noticed early last month that someone had used Shell employee data to file fake unemployment compensation claims with the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC). After investigating, Shell determined that an employee of a third-party contractor had misused information stored in a corporate database, Lebovitz said.

As reported by BN Americas, the incoming Vice President of Sales & Customer Services Joe Manuele of Actelis, the Californian-based Ethernet over copper provider, has observed that they are seeing a big boom in broadband in Latin America driven by triple play, 3G and web 2.0 applications. Many operators are moving away from legacy-based ATM DSLAMs (network devices that receive signals from DSL lines and backhaul them to a central office) towards new IP DSLAMs. Actelis' technology uses advanced digital techniques to provide backhaul from DSLAMs to the central office with Ethernet quality using existing legacy copper infrastructure, rather than fiber. Operators can benefit as they can meet growing demand for bandwidth from 3G services, without having to invest in fiber.

"Everyone is really spooked about the cost of oil and the cost of travel", Manuele observed. "All these new services like teleconferencing and telepresence over IP require very high speeds and symmetrical traffic, which have to be bidirectional. So we're launching services with carriers that are offering web 2.0 applications using [existing] copper infrastructure. Actelis' "Ethernet bonding capabilities over copper" allow carriers to reach speeds of up to 100Mbps for symmetrical data transport, making bandwidth hungry applications - such as telepresence - possible over copper. Actelis is backhauling DSL and WiMax traffic.

Such technology could boost the use of teleconferencing and telepresence over existing infrastructure, reducing the need for business travel and hence the carbon footprint of executive travel. For more information, see here.

Business News Americas is reporting that US Linux open source technology provider Red Hat has posted strong overall global growth with total revenues of US$164mn for 2Q 2009, a year-over-year increase of 29% or nearly a third.

According to Red Hat's Latin American marketing manager, Martín D'Elia, Latin America recorded the fastest growth due to good levels of IT adoption and faster decision cycles compared with more mature regions, and a higher penetration of open source than in other regions.

In terms of technologies, Red Hat will concentrate its efforts in virtualization for the operating system - an area that the company recently bolstered with the acquisition of Israeli IT firm Qumranet, which provides virtualization technologies for the desktops. D'Elia noted that, "while data centers are evolving to virtualized environments, they need to increase their virtualization offering to the desktop. This is a good business model for smaller companies, which can't afford an IT department, and is also good for large firms and the government, since there are big savings in hardware, energy and administration".

Business News Americas conducted an insightful interview with Aptilo Networks' CEO Torbjorn Ward. Aptilo Networks, a Swedish vendor of integrated service management and access control solutions for WiMAX networks, is witnessing considerable growth in WiMAX markets in the Caribbean and South American regions.

Speaking from the WiMAX World conference in Chicago earlier this week, Ward noted that the business case for WiMAX in developing markets is very different to that in developed markets. In developing nations, wireless infrastructure is deployed to provide voice and Internet coverage to remote areas lacking fixed-line infrastructure. While mobile penetration is often high, broadband penetration is typically very low. In developed markets, WiMAX operators are pushing the concept of advanced 4G connectivity.

On the debate about whether WiMAX or LTE will prove more dominant, Ward observed "this not a horse race in which there is going to be a winner or loser". He noted that there are a variety of technologies competing to provide fixed broadband to the home (such as DSL over copper or fiber and cable). Ward suggested that LTE is the obvious migration path for mobile operators, while WiMAX may appeal more to greenfield operators. "Who is winning [between cable or wireline operators]? If you are a cable operator you can only work with cable and if you're a wireline operator you can only work with DSL," Ward said. "My point is that's exactly the same thing when it comes to WiMax and GSM and LTE. If you're a GSM operator, you can offer that over mobile broadband and later LTE. If you're not a GSM license holder, you can offer WiMAX".

Ward quoted Ron Resnick, president of the WiMAX Forum, as stating that there are 1,700 WiMAX licenses in the process of being issued worldwide, in addition to the 300-400 WiMAX operators already active today.

UK banking losses due to fraud in the first half of 2008 hit £301.7m compared to £263.6m in the same period last year, according to the latest figures from UK banking association APACS.

Fraud abroad made up 40 per cent of total card fraud losses reaching £121.2m in the period, up 11 per cent of the £108.8m lost last year. That loss was through tactics such as the use of counterfeit plastic cards with stolen PINs on machines overseas that only check magnetic strips, not chips.

Once the European banking industry meets its target on the roll-out of plastic cards and readers that rely on chip-based technology - due to be completed by 2010 - this type of fast-growing scam will be contained, APACS predicts.

Card-not-present fraud (a category that includes ecommerce fraud as well as phone and mail order scams) also rose 18 per cent to reach £161.9m for the first six months of 2008, according to APACS stats published on Wednesday. This type of fraud has trebled - up 207 per cent - since 2001 but over the same six month period ecommerce transactions increased 415 per cent; so these particular figures, although hardly encouraging, are not quite as bad as they might first appear.

Standards for ICTs underpin the Internet and the global telecommunications network. No call is made or message exchanged without the use of ITU standards. As the only international intergovernmental standards organization, ITU is hosting WTSA and GSS to set the stage for the future development of ICT.The Global Standards Symposium (GSS) is a first-ever one day event (20 October 2008) designed to focus on key standardization issues in the ICT world, such as bridging the digital divide, climate change, accessibility, and the proliferation of standards bodies. GSS will provide inputs to the landmark World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly(WTSA-08) that follows immediately (21-30 October 2008).

China is pursuing a multi-technology approach to 3G, according to Telecom Web. Telecom Web is reporting that Chinese authorities are in the process of awarding several licenses for 3G, ending years of speculation about China's 3G licensing process.

China Mobile, with 392 million of China's 583.5 million mobile subscribers, is in line to get a 3G license requiring it to use China's home-grown TD-SCDMA. China Telecom, the largest fixed-line operator with 216 million customers, bought China Unicom's CDMA network (which currently has 43 million customers) and merged with China Satellite Communications Corp. The company has been awarded a 3G license for CDMA 1x EV-DO. Meanwhile, China Unicom, which has 125.4 million GSM subscribers and is now without its CDMA network (which was merged with Netcom, China's Number Two fixed-line provider) is getting a 3G license for WCDMA. Licenses are being awarded for 300 Chinese cities.

Point Topic Survey - mobile broadband has finally overtaken WiFi as the most popular mobile Internet access

The UK research firm Point Topic report in the results of their latest survey that mobile phone networks have finally overtaken WiFi hotspots as UK consumers' most popular way of accessing the Internet, whilst on the move. Point Topic’s recent survey of mobile broadband users shows that the UK mobile phone companies have managed to grow their market share to 47% of users accessing the Internet away from home or work, compared with 42% who prefer WiFi hotspots. One year earlier, the ratio was 40:30 in favour of WiFi.

Point Topic suggest that a year of heavy marketing of mobile broadband in the intensely competitive market is the main reason for the growth inmobile broadband's popularity, with five operators fighting for market share. Their research suggested that 26% or a quarter of those who use a mobile network to access the Internet are customers of O2, while Orange and Vodafone each take about a fifth or 20% of the market. T-Mobile and 3 have 14% and 12% respectively.

Mobile operators have a big size advantage over the WiFi service providers, who are relatively small and fragmented. But it is a lot cheaper to send data over WiFi and, unlike the mobile networks, WiFi has no problems with capacity. Point Topic predicts that "dual-mode operation, with mobile broadband users defaulting to WiFi where it’s available, will be the way of the future".

The MDGs were adopted following the United Nations Millennium Declaration by UN Member states in 2000, representing an international commitment to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat epidemics such as HIV/AIDS and malaria, ensure environmental sustainability, and develop a global partnership for development that would include making available the benefits of information and communication technologies. ICTs have been recognized as an important tool to achieve the MDGs.

Since the turn of the century, the growth of mobile cellular subscribers has been impressive, with year-on-year growth averaging 24 per cent between 2000 and 2008. While in 2000, mobile penetration stood at only 12 per cent, it surpassed the 50 per cent mark by early 2008. It is estimated to reach about 61 per cent by the end of 2008.

"The fact that 4 billion subscribers have been registered worldwide indicates that it is technically feasible to connect the world to the benefits of ICT and that it is a viable business opportunity," said Dr Touré. "Clearly, ICTs have the potential to act as catalysts to achieve the 2015 targets of the MDGs." [More...]

Signature of a MoU between ITU and Geneva's Observatoire Technologique

ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun I. Touré, and Mr. Mark Muller, Conseiller d'Etat from Siwtzerland, signed today a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the area of new and emerging Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). This MoU will enable the Union and its Membership to be aware of new and emerging technologies and their potential impact to the information society and in meeting socio-economic developmental targets such as the Millennium Development Goals and WSIS Targets. It will also enable ITU to take account of emerging ICTs and new technologies in the adjustment of its work programme to meet the Union’s Strategic Goals and orientations.

ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun I. Touré is interviewed by Tony Poulos from TelecomTV on the theme of ITU Telecom Asia 2008: New Generation, New Values.

Dr Touré explains how Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), being the tools for all other sectors of economy, are key to achieving United Nations Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Other subjects such as climate change and cybersecurity are also discussed in the course of the interview. [Full video interview...]

GSMAP 2008: One in two of the world’s inhabitants have access to a mobile phone

The Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union, Dr Hamadoun I. Touré , highlighted at the GSMA Asia-Pacific Conference (Colombo, Sri Lanka, 7-10 September 2008), that in August last year we surpassed the milestone of three billion mobile phone subscriptions and today, one in two of the world's inhabitants have access to a mobile phone. Mobile cellular subscribers are likely to reach the 4 billion mark before the end of this year.

ITU is working closely with the GSMA under a Memorandum of Understanding signed at the 7th Global Symposium for Regulators in Dubai last year. This project aims strengthening cooperation and improving access to mobile phone services to bridge the digital divide in least developed and developing nations. It concentrates on three key areas: supporting developing market projects for low-cost access to ICTs in underserved areas; industry and government cooperation; and benchmarking of the global industry, on the basis of a close monitoring of the markets.

ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008 brought the shutters down in Bangkok with a focus on new business opportunities to sustain growth in the dynamic ICT industry in the Asia-Pacific region as well as on the younger generation of users and innovators.

With over two billion telephones, including 1.4 billion mobile subscribers, and 42 per cent of the world’s Internet users, Asia is a region of superlatives in the ICT arena. It is also the world’s largest broadband market with a 39 per cent share of the world’s total at the end of 2007, as noted in ITU’s 2008 Asia Pacific Telecommunications and ICT Indicators Report that was launched at the event. ‘New Generation, New Values’, the theme of ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008 addressed the demands of a young population that is clearly setting the tone for a new generation of ICT developers and development.

Over 170 exhibitors from around the world occupied some 15 000 square meters of covered space at the IMPACT Centre, a modern convention and exhibition complex on the outskirts of Bangkok. Business was brisk with trade visitors and exhibitors meeting on the show floor as well as in the national pavilions of China, France, Korea (Republic of), Japan, Russia, Thailand and the United States.

"Business as usual" was the common refrain among all participants at ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008, despite the developing political situation in Thailand. While news reports of the unfolding scenario kept some foreign participants from attending, which resulted in lower numbers of visitors than expected, the IMPACT Centre as well as most of Bangkok city appeared unaffected. The Forum Halls were full to overflowing and the trade show bustled with activity. [More...]

ITU concluded an agreement with the International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber-Terrorism (IMPACT) to operationalize the ITU Global Cybersecurity Agenda (GCA). IMPACT’S state-of-the-art global headquarters in Cyberjaya, Kuala Lumpur will be the home of ITU’s Global Cybersecurity Agenda.

The collaboration between ITU and IMPACT is aimed at building synergies to provide:

Training and skills development on the technical, legal and policy aspects of cybersecurity

The agreement is in line with the decision of the World Summit on the Information Society to build security and confidence in the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). The Summit also called for the coordination of multi-stakeholder implementation of information exchange, creation of knowledge, sharing of best practices, and assistance in developing public/private partnerships.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Bangkok during ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008 by ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré and Chairman of the IMPACT Management Board Mr Mohammad Noor Amin. [More...]

ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008 opened its doors today in Bangkok, Thailand unveiling an array of leading edge information and communication technologies (ICT) as well as a high-profile Forum focused on today’s connected generation and sustainable new business models for growing the ICT sector.

This followed the formal opening yesterday by HRH Princess of Thailand Maha Chakri Sirindhorn. In her opening address, the Princess stated, "ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008 is the leading showcase of the latest technology innovation of the ICT industry within the Asia-Pacific region. I sincerely hope that ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008 will provide benefits for the advancement of ICT as well as telecommunication towards the people sector, business, trade and investment, and promote collaboration within the Asia-Pacific region and beyond."

HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn is renowned for her expertise in information technology and for applying it in the development of her country. She visited the TELECOM ASIA Exhibition show floor and expressed her deep interest in the technologies, applications and services on display. ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré presented the ITU Award for Connecting the World to the Princess in recognition of her exceptional contribution in promoting ICTs in Thailand and around the world.

The Prime Minister of Thailand, Mr Samak Sundaravej introduced the salient features of ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008 at the royal opening ceremony. [More...]

ITU launched its key Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Report for the Asia-Pacific region at ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008, which got under way today in Bangkok, Thailand. The Report focuses on broadband connectivity as a vehicle for content to drive development and build a knowledge-based information society.

While some Asia-Pacific economies are world leaders in information and communication technologies (ICT) where broadband access is ultra-high speed, affordable and close to ubiquitous, in most of the region's poorer countries Internet access remains limited and predominantly low-speed. The Report finds evidence that ICTs and broadband uptake foster growth and development, but the question remains as to the optimal speed that should be targeted in view of limited resources.

The Asia-Pacific Telecommunication/ICT Indicators 2008 Report is an invaluable information tool to inform and guide policy-makers, investors, analysts and other observers of the region's telecommunications landscape. It contains an extensive overview of key sector developments, and includes a number of recommendations to sustain growth and deepen access to ICTs in the region. [More...]

Young participants at ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008 in Bangkok, Thailand are set to receive free laptops at the opening of the Youth Forum on 31 August.

The gift of the computers is part of ITU's initiative to promote affordable devices to increase access to ICT. ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré said, "ITU is committed to connecting the world. And to achieve this goal, affordable devices have to be made available for people everywhere to access the benefits of a knowledge-based Information Society." [More...]

ITU Secretary-General opens the 4th International Symposium on Telecommunications in Tehran, Iran

Dr Touré talks about ITU's technical leadership, its current standardization priorities as well as its policy-making activities.

"... As the broker of global consensus on the technologies and frameworks that will underpin the next wave of innovation, ITU is active in every facet of ICT development, from access networks, transmission, next generation networks and broadband, to billing and numbering, satellite systems and of course wireless, which continues to notch up exponential growth while expanding its reach into new areas.

In 2007, ITU-T alone produced over 160 new and revised standards, covering everything from core public phone network functionality to next-generation services like IPTV.

And to meet the needs of an industry where today’s breakthrough technology quickly becomes yester-year’s legacy installation, we’ve dramatically streamlined our processes, paring back the average development time for an ITU Recommendation from four years in 1988 to around just one year today.

The pace of work continues to accelerate: 13% more ITU-T Recommendations were approved in 2007 than in 2006, and, with the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly set to kick off in Johannesburg, South Africa in October, this year’s achievement is already set to be higher still.

In September last year, to promote and enhance worldwide access to globally-agreed ITU Recommendations, we also took the radical step of making over 3,000 core ITU standards downloadable directly over the Internet, free of charge. As hoped, this move has been particularly beneficial to developing countries, which downloaded over 300,000 copies of ITU-T standards in 2007.

Looking ahead, priority areas of focus include Next Generation Networks, multimedia codecs, digital identity management systems, fast broadband platforms, and of course the next wave in cellular mobile, which is being developed under the auspices of our IMT-Advanced project..." [Full speech...]

The US Academy of Television Arts & Sciences awarded the prestigious Primetime Emmy Award for Excellence to ITU, ISO and IEC - global leaders in making standards - for their work in producing an advanced video coding standard, formally known as Recommendation ITU-T H.264 | ISO/IEC Standard 14496-10 on Advanced Video Coding (AVC).

The Joint Video Team (JVT), made up of experts from the three international standards organizations, received industry recognition for its landmark achievement in developing a "high profile" that extends the reach of high quality video from mobile telephones right through to High Definition Television (HDTV). The JVT was formed in 2001 by the ITU Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) and the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG).

H.264 | MPEG-4 AVC is a highly efficient video compression method that substantially reduces the bandwidth needed to deliver high quality video and the space required to store it. Seven sets of capabilities, referred to as "profiles", have been created for use in specific applications. It is a combination of the great efficiency of the codec as well as its scalability in delivering excellent quality across the entire bandwidth spectrum — from high definition television to videoconferencing and 3G-mobile multimedia — that has led to its increasing popularity. [More...]

Extract from the International Herald Tribune: ...More than 120 scientists, engineers, analysts and economists from 30 countries were hunkered down here for the 40th annual conference on "planetary emergencies." The term was coined by Antonino Zichichi, a native son and a theoretical physicist who has made Erice a hub for experts to discuss persistent, and potentially catastrophic, global challenges...

... In a session on information security, Hamadoun Toure, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union, warned that pervasive computer use, while offering the prospect of a global "knowledge society," also made billions of individuals into potential superpowers. "Every single brain on earth is equal and can trigger an attack," he said... [Full article on the International Herald Tribune]

ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008 set for Bangkok, 2-5 September - ITU Asia-Pacific Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Report will be released on 1 September

ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008 is set to open in Bangkok, Thailand in two weeks. The leading showcase for information and communication technologies (ICT) and the foremost networking platform for policy makers, regulators and the ICT industry from across the Asia-Pacific region will open its doors 2-5 September 2008 at the IMPACT Convention Centre, Muang Thong Thani, Bangkok.

The VIP/Press Day will be held on 1 September, beginning with the Opening Ceremony at 9:00 am. The Press conference will take place at 12 Noon followed by a Press lunch at 13:00 and a Press tour of the exhibition. A Ministerial round table and high-level dialogue between Ministers and industry leaders will also be held at the venue. The ITU Asia Pacific Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Report will be launched at the Press conference. [More...]

ITU Secretary-General talks on the occasion of ITU TELECOM Asia 2008 about the new agenda of ITU

Since taking office in January 2007, Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré has set an ambitious new agenda for the ITU designed to help lead the way towards a more equitable and responsible ICT-based economy. A native of Mali whose long career in ICT spans senior private and public sector roles on three continents, Dr Touré seeks to get to grips with the changing realities of a brand new socio-economic paradigm.

A: ITU recognized an urgent need to raise awareness about the very real threat already posed by cybercrime, and to build global consensus on practical ways forward in combating this scourge.

Cyberspace has no borders, no constraining frontiers. The global nature of today's threats means no country can regard itself as an island. This is therefore a truly international problem demanding action on an international level. ITU boasts a long and successful history of forging consensus on the way the world manages globally shared ICT resources - such as satellite orbits and radiofrequency spectrum. Now we're leveraging that track record to help build an international set of principles and best practice that countries around the world can follow, so that efforts to stamp out cybercrime have maximum impact and effectiveness.

The GCA's role is to link existing initiatives and provide a framework for consensus. We've already got lots of key organizations sharing ideas - INTERPOL with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, for example. Working together significantly increases our chances of success. And by involving global experts in the process from the beginning, we'll help make sure that the solutions decided upon get implemented properly.

Q: Where are we in terms of progress on the Agenda?

A: To ensure all countries and stakeholders had the chance to voice their views and concerns, ITU convened a High-Level Experts Group comprising a broad spectrum of representatives from government, international and regional organizations, private industry and academia. This global multi-stakeholder think-tank was tasked with preparing a strategic report and a set of recommendations on how to best achieve the seven strategic goals of the GCA, which span legislation, hardware and software authentication, digital identity certification, and international frameworks for proactive cooperation, as well as early warning on cyber threats.

The HLEG met on 26 June 2008 to submit its recommendations, and I'll be presenting these to ITU Council in November this year. So just over one year since launch, we're moving from talk to action. In the past three months alone we've seen a number of exciting developments, including new collaboration with IMPACT, the global initiative launched by Malaysian Prime Minister, which has offered to serve as one of the GCA physical homes; launch of the GCA Strategic Partnership Program to forge alliances with key stakeholders; mounting interest from leading ICT firms; and a second Patron from Africa - the President of Burkina Faso.

We still have a lot of complex work ahead of us, but with ITU's proven ability to broker effective, workable international agreements on a whole range of contentious issues - from emergency communications to third-generation mobile telephony - I'm quite confident we'll get there.

Q: Child protection has emerged as one of the most urgent cybersecurity priorities. What's ITU position here?

A: There's no doubt this needs to be one of the very first issues addressed. Today’s children are increasingly vulnerable - yet their parents, teachers, guardians and even governments are often unaware of the dangers.

We all tell our children to be careful out on the street. What many people haven’t realized is that, equipped with a computer, a child’s bedroom can suddenly become a very dangerous neighbourhood - and that their children are walking through that neighbourhood in the dark, alone. So the first step is to raise awareness at a parental, educational and social level. We need to urgently integrate cyber protection into our community education programmes, and into our school curricula.

At the same time, we need to work towards a harmonized international framework against child pornography and cybercriminals who target and prey on children. Without this framework, some countries will become unwilling hubs for illegal activities of the most undesirable kind - something no nation would want. Much good work has already been done by various agencies and organizations around the world. Through ITU, we can bring key stakeholders together to leverage the progress made so far and develop an internationally effective strategy to eradicate these activities.

To that end, we’ve just announced the creation of a multi-stakeholder coalition under the GCA framework to undertake concrete actions for the protection of children online. The Child Online Protection (COP) will be launched later this year, and will actively work with partners from industry, governments, international organizations and others to develop concrete actions for protecting children in cyber space.

I believe ITU, which is committed to connecting the world, also has a responsibility to help ensure that these connections are safe. At the same time, it’s vital that our initiatives do nothing to stifle or smother the enormous benefits the Internet can bring young people, both as a traditional educational resource and as a tool for peer to peer networking and learning.

Q: You talk of Â‘Connecting the World’ - and you held the highly successful Â‘Connect Africa‘ event in Rwanda last year. Can we expect to see more Â‘Connect’ events - and which regions would be targeted next?

A: We held the first Connect event in Africa because, as home to 36 of the 49 UN-designated Least Developed Countries, the African continent is still the most urgently in need. The unprecedented interest this event generated, including over US$ 55 billion in project commitments, is clear proof that the industry is now aggressively looking to developing markets for new opportunities. The next Connect event - Connect CIS - is already on the agenda, and will be held in Belarus in 2009. We’re confident that it will match the success of our first event, as participants take advantage of enormous untapped demand in fast-emerging markets across this exciting region.

We’ll be following that up with other Connect events for key world regions - Connect Americas, and Connect Asia - with a special focus as well on the small island states of the Pacific.

Q: How do ITU Connect events differ from the many other ICT trade shows and conferences targeting regional markets?

A: ICTs are the engine driving every other economic sector. And over the past five years, two thirds of all new jobs created have been in the ICT sector. In defining our Connect events, our motto has been Â‘wealth creation, not poverty alleviation’. Unlike many events, we’re not focusing on the latest gizmos, but rather on ICT development through partnership - particularly constructive partnership between governments and the private sector. Regionally-focused events are very useful, because they can address common problems in areas like licensing, regulation and infrastructure sharing. In deciding the venue for future regional Connect events, we’ll be looking for strong commitments from host governments to forging local ICT markets that favour business opportunity and promote good, competitively-priced services.

Q: In addition to Connect CIS, there’s another important event on the ITU horizon next year - the fourth World Telecommunication Policy Forum in Lisbon. What will this event focus on?

A: With so much happening across the industry, we’ve chosen the broad theme of Â‘Convergence’ to encompass a range of paradigm shifts. The event will look at new network technologies - for example, the standardization work now underway within ITU on Next Generation Networks and IMT-Advanced mobile technology. But we’ll also be looking at other important global issues, such as ICTs and climate change.

A: Yes, but in fact we’ve already been very active here for a number of years, through the development of technologies for environmental monitoring, through early warning systems to help communities mitigate the effects of the growing number of natural disasters provoked by global warming, and through technologies designed to minimize human impact on our environment.

I believe we can go much, much further, by helping industries across all sectors reduce their carbon footprint. Sure, as products that consume energy - through both their manufacture and their use - ICTs are part of the problem, accounting for around three per cent of global CO2 emissions. But they can also be a huge part of the solution - for example, by reducing the need for paper, by automatically switching both themselves and other electrical appliances to Â‘sleep’ mode to cut energy consumption, by reducing the need for travel, and by more efficiently managing energy needs in our homes or in our cars.

Following two international Symposia on ICTs and Climate Change held earlier this year, the important role of ICTs in mitigating climate change was addressed at the G8 meeting in Lake Toya in July. ITU will continue to proactively work towards even better technological solutions to reducing our carbon footprint, through standardization efforts in areas like NGN, where new technologies can dramatically reduce the power consumption of network infrastructure, and through special areas of focus like the Networked Home and the Networked Car. We’re also stepping up our work in the area of emergency communications, to help communities deal with the often catastrophic effects of a shift in climate patterns.

Q: ITU took the lead back in 1998 in brokering the Tampere Convention on the cross-border use of mobile communications for humanitarian relief. What other activities are you involved in?

A: The Tampere Convention was a major landmark in emergency response, and has now been ratified by 36 nations. This is a priority area for us, and we’re partnering with a wide range of public and private sector organizations across a range of different areas.

Following the Asian tsunami in 2004, we’ve been working with the Australian government and others on developing early-warning technology for maritime disasters. The most recent World Radiocommunication Conference here in Geneva last year approved new key spectrum allocations for environmental monitoring and disaster mitigation.

And we’re active on the ground, providing communications equipment for disaster relief, and technical expertise to help authorities get backbone links up again quickly after a disaster.

More, however, still needs to be done. That’s why we developed a new international framework that was put in place in December 2007. This framework focuses on putting in place national and international disaster prevention and response agreements that can serve as the basis of relief efforts in the event of a catastrophe. When disaster strikes, no-one should be wasting time brokering deals. And no-one should be arguing as to who might get credit for the rescue and clean-up. All our efforts must be directed to helping the victims - as efficiently and as quickly as possible.

Q: What can we expect to see at the industry’s flagship trade show, ITU Telecom Asia 2008 in Thailand in September?

A: With Asia now leading the world in technological innovation, there are always plenty of surprises! I’m sure we’ll see much to excite us on the show floor from major global players and rising Asian stars. As to the Forum programme, we can expect plenty of healthy debate. The new, more interactive format we piloted at our Cairo event in May was very well received, so we’ll be reinforcing that model in Bangkok. I believe Â‘from friction comes light’ - so we’ll be aiming to provoke a few clashes of opinion from industry leadersÂ…

Asia is a fascinating region because it encompasses both ends of the ICT development spectrum. It’s home to the most wired, most technophile communities in the world. And it’s also home to LDCs and marginalized island states. That makes it a great test bed for new ideas, new technologies - and exciting new applications.

Q: The theme for this year’s ITU Telecom event is New Generation, New Values. What does this mean, in practice?

A: We chose this theme because, quite simply, no region of the world embraces ICTs like Asia. Entire generations now define themselves through technology. That’s a huge force for innovation, as manufacturers and service providers alike clamber to make the most of the opportunities by devising compelling new products and services designed to capture the consumer imagination - and wallet. In other countries, technology tends to be applied as a tool, to meet user needs. In Asia, it’s already very much a lifestyle.

A: There’s no doubt that this is true in areas like mobile and broadband. Asia spans some of the most sophisticated markets with the highest levels of ICT penetration and growth in the world. China and India are the world’s largest and fastest growing markets, with mobile subscribers alone totalling over 600 million and 280 million respectively by mid-2008. The Republic of Korea leads the world with close to 80% of households connected to broadband. Both Singapore and Hong Kong, China are not far behind, with 70%. That’s why ITU Telecom Asia has always served as a bellwether for the industry - it not only opens doors to some of the biggest opportunities for exhibitors, but provides a crucial snapshot of where the industry’s heading in terms of technologies, applications and new business models.

That’s particularly important in Asia, which remains a region of stark contrasts. While some countries now boast excess broadband capacity, others - particularly geographically isolated nations like Small Island States - are still struggling to get their populations connected. New technologies will help. The next Connect Asia Summit that ITU is organizing with other partners will be a key milestone in setting the strategies at regional level. Discussions during Asia 2008 with business and political leaders will be timely for achieving the expected results.

This ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008 Forum session addresses the theme: Meeting the Needs of Society. Today's modern world of communications is witness to innovative systems that present a host of both opportunities and challenges for public policy frameworks. The current telecommunications regulatory model applies to legacy publicly switched telecommunications networks (PSTN). However, the rapid investment in next-generation networks (NGN) is creating new regulatory issues and challenges, calling for a paradigm shift in ICT regulation.

NGN is a packet-based Internet Protocol (IP) network designed to deliver a full range of services - from broadband Internet to fixed, wireless and mobile voice and data, and even broadcast television -- over a single network with guaranteed quality of service. The imminent replacement of circuit-switched phone systems with the new packet-switched architecture illustrates how regulatory approaches must match innovation. A significant challenge with NGN is matching the right policy and regulatory settings to facilitate migration to NGN and stimulate investment in the new networks. This session will consider the costs and benefits of investing in the still uncharted NGN terrain. [More...]

Climate change is a global challenge that demands urgent attention. Information and communication technologies (ICT) are vital instruments in monitoring the spread of global warming as well as part of the solution in promoting carbon displacement technologies. At the same time, in an increasingly ‘switched on’ society, ICTs are also becoming a part of the cause of global warming. Although ICTs contribute only an estimated 2.5 per cent of total greenhouse gases, this is set to increase as ICT usage expands globally.

New technologies that increase efficiencies provide opportunities for monitoring and protecting the environment, mitigating the effects of global warming and adapting to climate change. In its commitment to connecting the world, ITU advances a green ICT agenda and leads environment-friendly initiatives to monitor climate change and reduce the carbon footprint of ICT while enabling other sectors to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. [More...]

ITU Secretary-General at the 24th Universal Postal Congress: ITU and UPU have long worked towards the ideal of universal access

Extract from Dr Touré's address: ... ITU and UPU have long worked towards the ideal of universal access. Now, at a time when the digitalization of our industries is rapidly changing the communication landscape, we are still working towards this ideal.

The goal of universal access was the reason for ITU’s Connect Africa initiative, launched at a high-level Summit in Kigali last October. While great gains have been made in the African continent in recent years, there remains much to do if we want to eliminate the digital divide. Bringing connectivity to every region in Africa requires mobilizing all possible human, technical and financial resources – both public and private. At the same time, Connect Africa has demonstrated that such mobilization of resources can create exciting business and investment opportunities.

UPU, of course, has had its own role to play in this process. As has been so often the case in the history of our two organizations, we again find ourselves not only standing side-by-side, but working actively together. Let me give you 3 examples... [Full speech]

During the audience granted to Dr Touré on 25 July by His Excellency Amadou Toumani Touré, President of the Republic of Mali, discussions focused on the successes achieved in the ICT sector with a view to facilitating access to communication for people from all layers of society nationwide and thereby attaining the Millennium Goals. Reference was also made to ITU's support, which will result in the implementation of priority projects relating to smooth privatization of SOTELMA, optical fibre networks, multipurpose community centres in post offices and training centres.

Emergency workers searching for next-of-kin contact information for an injured person now have a globally recognized way of doing so, thanks to a new standard from ITU.

By simply prefixing the Arabic numericals 01, 02, 03, and so on to a nominated contact, such as "01father", "02wife" or "03husband" written in any script in the mobile telephone directory, will help emergency workers in any part of the world identify contacts in order of priority and notify them.

ITU will work with non-profit organization ICE4SAFETY to promote this new way of identifying an emergency contact in a mobile handset's directory.

"In Case of Emergency" — or ICE — has emerged in some English-speaking countries encouraging people to list emergency contact numbers in their mobile phone’s directory in the form of "ICE father", for example, or "ICE doctor". However, this precludes people who do not use or recognize the Roman script from readily identifying what the term "ICE" represents. ITU members expressed the need to identify emergency contacts independent of language or script. [More...]

An audience with His Excellency Abdoulaye Wade, President of the Republic of Senegal, was granted on 21 July to the ITU Secretary-General, who had previously paid personal visits to ongoing projects such as extension of the Governmental Intranet, the Pompenguine Cybercase pilot project, and the computer-recycling programme involving disabled persons. Operational missions relating to feasibility studies in close collaboration with the African Union were entrusted to ITU.

TELECOM Forum: Security, Privacy and Trust - Who Protects Whom? And From What?

In an increasingly networked world, achieving cybersecurity and cyberpeace is critically important. Recognizing the magnitude of the issue, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) called for building confidence and security in the use of ICTs. And ITU, in keeping with its lead role, launched the Global Cybersecurity Agenda (GCA) to fast-track a global response to enhance cybersecurity.

Considering the major role that ICTs play as an engine of growth in the world economy, the ITU TELECOM Forum in Bangkok, Thailand will address the key issues of security, privacy and trust.

Huge investments have been made worldwide to put government services online, and cross-border collaboration is critical for the effective implementation of those services. Users are often rightly suspicious about technology that aggregates massive amounts of personal data which, in the hands of identity thieves and cyber criminals, could lead to disastrous consequences.

How can the rights and privacy of citizens be safeguarded while still facilitating the convenience of electronic identity systems? What principles have been learned and where should attention be focused? This Forum session at ITU TELECOM ASIA will dig deep to find the answers! [More...]

The Connect the Caribbean event was hosted by the National Telecommunications Provider, Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) and was attended by well over 680 delegates, ten Ministers of Government from around the region and other invited guests from The Bahamas. The theme of this year’s event was “CANTO"- Caribbean Unity through Connectivity and was centered on the Connect the Caribbean (CTC) Initiative of CANTO. The Connect the Caribbean Initiative is the Caribbean’s response to the “Connect the World Initiative”, consistent with the framework of Connect the World project of the ITU. The project will function as a partnership to mobilize the human, financial and technical resources required to bridge major gaps in ICT infrastructure development, enabling a harmonized policy framework and developing relevant and affordable services and applications.

ITU responds to industry call to accelerate work on cleaner and greener environment - New group to focus on the impact of ICT and climate change

Responding to an industry call, ITU has set up a new group to work on standards related to the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) on climate change. The new group will focus in particular on the reduction of ICT emissions and how ICTs can assist in cutting emissions in other industry sectors such as energy, transportation and buildings.

Since the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol, in December 1997, the number of ICT users has tripled worldwide. It is estimated that the ICT sector produces between two to three per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. But ICTs are also seen as a part of the solution to the climate change challenge.

ICTs could help cut global emissions by between 15 to 40 per cent, depending on the methodology used to make these estimates. Two recent ITU symposia on ICTs and climate change in Kyoto in April and in London in June this year drew attention to the wide variation in these estimates. A key objective of the Focus Group will be to develop internationally agreed methodologies to describe and estimate the impact of ICTs on climate change, both directly and through their application in other industry sectors... [More... ]

ITU and Servei de Telecomunicacions d'Andorra join forces to connect least developed countries and Small Island Developing States

The International Telecommunication Union and Andorra's telecommunications operator, Servei de Telecomunicacions d'Andorra (STA), have signed a non-exclusive partnership cooperation agreement to help boost access to telecommunication and information and communication technology (ICT) services in least developed countries and Small Island Developing States. In particular, the two parties will work together to develop and implement projects that aim to improve rural or outer island communication infrastructure; provide basic telecommunications, as well as high-speed Internet services; strengthen local capacity in information technology skills; and enhance ICT capacity, especially for emergency and disaster preparedness and management. [More...]

BBC Radio - Digital Planet: Interview with Malcolm Johnson, Director of the Standardization Sector of ITU

Reducing energy consumption is on the agenda at the G8 summit in Japan. Gareth from BBC Radio speaks to Malcolm Johnson, from the International Telecommunication Union, about the global issues facing technology providers and users... [Interview]

ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008, the regional ICT showcase, is set for Bangkok, Thailand from 2 to 5 September. The first such event to be hosted by Thailand, Asia 2008 will promote information and communication technologies (ICT) both globally and within the Asia-Pacific region.

"New Generation, New Values" the theme for ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008 sets the stage for both the Exhibition and the Forum. The Exhibition showcases a comprehensive range of ICT-related products and services, reflecting the ever extending reach of industry. Parallel to individual stands, a number of initiatives are underway to showcase national competitive advantages. Pavilions registered thus far include: China, France, Japan, Korea, Russia, Thailand and USA. ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008 will be held at the modern IMPACT Challenger Centre in Bangkok. As ASIA 2008 coincides with the dates for Bangkok International ICT Expo that has been organized for the last four years by Thailand’s Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT), the entire central hall of the IMPACT Challenger venue is dedicated to showcasing the ICT industry in Thailand.

"Thailand is very supportive of this year’s event and has organized an impressive Pavilion that firmly establishes Thailand as an ICT hub," said ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré. "The location is ideal because of its strategic and geographic situation in the Asia-Pacific region, noting the fast-growing markets in China and India and the huge potential of the rest of the region. At the same time, more developed markets in neighbouring countries continue to embrace cutting edge information and communication technologies." [More...]

European Commission wants a web that is better enabled for the disabled

15% of Europeans suffer from some form of disability, and many face barriers such as reading a website's small text or even knowing how to access websites and online services. Despite repeated calls by the EU and government leaders to improve this situation, progress remains limited: by far the majority of websites fail to use universally accepted user-friendly solutions. Today the European Commission launched a public consultation on further measures to make websites in Europe accessible, starting with those of public administrations, and invites stakeholders to give their views. It also addresses other technologies like digital television. The consultation is open until 27 August 2008. [More...]

African regulators and policy makers met in Dakar, Senegal to address the challenges of connecting Africa to information and communication technologies (ICT). Achieving connectivity is seen as a catalyst for achieving the broader targets of the Millennium Development Goals.

The ninthForum on Telecommunication/ICT Regulation and Partnership in Africa was held 4-6 June 2008 in the context of the Connect Africa Summit, which met in Kigali, Rwanda last October.

Opening the Forum, Mr Habib Sy, Minister for Infrastructures, Land Transport, Telecommunications and ICT of Senegal emphasized the importance of establishing a regulatory framework to build a modern and successful Africa perfectly integrated in the information society.

ITU was represented by Mr Yury Grin, Deputy Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau. He highlighted ITU’s role as a facilitator in supporting African countries to establish effective regulatory frameworks. He said the creation of an enabling environment would foster investment and stimulate growth in the ICT sector.

I am pleased to be with you this morning at this especially important TSAG meeting, the last before WTSA in Johannesburg.

As you know ITU's mission is to connect the world. I am proud of the strong resolve that TSAG has shown in supporting this number one goal of ITU.

In my address to TSAG in December last year I laid out the five key priorities that were identified by the new management team.

Bridging the digital divide

Stewardship of the radio spectrum

Adopting international standards to ensure seamless global communications and interoperability

Building confidence and security in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs)

Emergency communications.

As a direct result of that last TSAG meeting ICTs and climate change has become an item to add to this list and is now very strongly fixed on our agenda. I am very appreciative of the drive that has come from TSAG and ITU-T on this topic and note with pleasure the excellent outcome of the recent symposiums in Kyoto and London... [Full speech...]

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates met with ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré along with a high-level ITU delegation including the Director of the ITU Standardization Bureau, Mr Malcolm Johnson, Director of the Development Bureau, Mr Sami Al Basheer, and Ms Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Chief of Strategic Planning and Membership.

The meeting in Redmond, WA, USA aimed at extending the collaboration between ITU and Microsoft. Discussions ranged from improving education through information and communication technologies (ICT), developing digital resources, providing access to low-cost ICT devices and building human capacity to expanding e-health services and other e-applications.

At the meeting, Mr Bill Gates emphasized that ICT is a key component for achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

After the OECD Ministerial Meeting and on his way to Seattle, Dr. Touré visited Japan for the first time since the begining of his mandate as Secretary-General and met with high-level officials in Tokyo to discuss subjects such as Cybersecurity, Climate Change, and the Digital Divide, with the view to intensify efforts in these important areas. The Secretary-General also thanked the Governement of Japan for its generous support towards an ITU pilot study project on Wireless Broadband Technology. Within the framework of his mission, Dr Touré was received by Mr. K. Aritomi Kaníchiro, President of the ITU Association of Japan and emphasized the catalytic role of ITU to link the new technologies and services of the Japanese industry with developping countries and develop this through partnerships.

The OECD Ministerial Meeting that took place in Seoul, Korea was attended by more than 70 countries. Dr Touré, ITU Secretary-General met with Presidents and CEOs of prominent ICT companies from Korea where the developments and innovations of the ICT industry have brought a significant benefit to the region. The industry leaders shared initiatives at multilateral and bilateral levels. Many themes were tackled and "the Global Internet Economy" was the topic of roundtable 5 at which Dr Touré addressed the mobile success story of today and defended the priority of tomorrow which is the broadband Internet as a basic and vital infrastructure to the economy and social development. The Secretary-General urged participants to bring the broadband networks within easy reach of all in order to avoid creating a devastating new Digital Divide. In face of today's new threats, the task of ensuring the right infrastructure and empowering people to use the new tools will build confidence in Internet becomes an essential goal to global technology.

Dr. Touré attended the GTM 2008 in Washington on 3 June 2008. Intelsat has been hosting GTM for the past 30 years where communications companies, satellite industry and organizations from all over the world gather in sharing their network and knowledge to address the benefit of ICT to people in the most remote places on the globe. This year GTM event opened its doors to corporate network operators, government services sectors and carriers. GTM 08 tackled the networking environment and focused on business and social issues affecting the world telecom industry. “Connect the World” having been the theme of this years’ GTM, Dr. Touré, a keynote speaker at this event, found this forum a perfect platform to share one of the principal missions of ITU to expand access and connectivity in a view to reaching its goal to “connect the unconnected by 2015”.

Geneva, Switzerland Ms Khédija Hamouda Ghariani, Secretary-General of the Arab Information and Communication Technology Organization (AICTO) visited the Geneva headquarters of ITU and met with Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré and Deputy Secretary-General Mr Houlin Zhao on 26 May 2008. Established in January 2008 to meet the goals of the Information Society in the Arab States through the development of ICT, AICTO has applied to become a Sector Member of ITU.

Dr Touré's supporting quote: "As the specialized United Nations agency for information and communication technologies (ICT), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) welcomes the new Mobile Alliance Against Child Sexual Abuse to protect children from the misuse of mobile broadband networks by child predators around the world. The World Summit on the Information Society called for national and international measures against the use of ICT in all forms of child abuse and encouraged the setting up of child helplines. Those measures have been endorsed by the ITU and they are being adopted by our distinctive membership of 191 Member States and some 700 private companies. The Mobile Alliance is a prime example of the proactive action industry can take and, together with government and law enforcement support, we can make significant progress in the global fight against child sexual abuse content online."

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